IRVINE – If Anita Lau hasn’t reviewed a restaurant, does it really exist?

After all, looking at the Irvine resident’s resume on Yelp – a leading online clearinghouse for consumer critiques – it’s hard to imagine she’s missed anything.

In the roughly 2,000 days the site has existed, Lau has penned about 3,400 posts, making her the second-most prolific Yelper in the world (the site serves the United States, Canada, France, the U.K., Germany and Ireland).

“In the beginning, I used to write a lot, a ton of reviews, sometimes like 10 a day,” Lau said.

Now she dashes off one appraisal every 24 hours or so, mostly regarding food but also about hairdressers, department stores and mechanics. As reviews pile up, her reputation spreads, and “Anita L.” – the site uses first names and last initials – has become a superstar scribe.

“I can say without a doubt that she’s a celebrity in her own right,” said Hazel Quimpo, Yelp community manager.

Yelpers can add “friends” in the same way as Facebook, and a user named Corazon R. once expressed horror when realizing she and Lau hadn’t connected: “Seriously!?!?!? I wasn’t friends with the famous Anita L.?!?!?!?”

So why does she do it? Why does she photograph her food and write nuanced descriptions of cupcake frosting and baba ganoush without expecting a dime in return?

And more importantly, can she recommend a good place to eat?

FAR-FLUNG FLAVORS

Lau, 43, traces her food fascination to a nomadic lifestyle – born in Hong Kong, raised in Malaysia, schooled in Oregon, working as a caterer in Australia, hired as a food critic in Hong Kong, author of a cookbook in the Bay Area, mother and wife in Hawaii.

For the past four years, she’s resided with her husband and son in Irvine – and before you ask, yes, she reviewed the city on Yelp and gave it five stars.

“I love living in Irvine,” Lau wrote in 2007. “I never thought I’d say this but I do. Though I still miss living in the Bay Area, lil guy is getting an excellent education, we live in an area free of crime. … My only question is why are they constantly repairing the roads when they are still in mint condition?”

Her relationship with Yelp – which derives its name from “yellow pages” – dates to 2005, when she was part of a “foodie meet-up group” near San Francisco, where the site got its start.

“I thought, ‘Oh, what the hell, I’ll write a couple of reviews,'” Lau recalled. “A couple of reviews became tens and hundreds and thousands of reviews, I guess. It was what I used to do for pay, but I really loved doing that sort of work. For me it’s therapeutic. It’s an outlet.”

ANYWHERE, ANYTIME

The opinionated outpouring has been made possible by living in different locales – new cities mean new businesses to cheer and jeer. There is also Lau’s willingness to drive far and wide in search of eats.

“Distance is not even a problem for her,” said fellow Yelper and Orange County resident Lena Urhan. “She’ll go to L.A.; she’ll go to San Diego to try new stuff.”

On top of that, Lau will describe numerous experiences at a single establishment – nine reviews of the Lola Gaspar tapas bar in Santa Ana, for example.

And, importantly, virtually everything can be reviewed. The Australian Consulate General in Los Angeles – “The staff are super friendly and helpful,” Lau said in her four-star review.

Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, where she appeared for a speeding ticket – “Very courteous” staffers and free parking, Lau said in awarding another four out of five stars.

She even managed to address a pet peeve – Yelpers who are too brief – by venting in a category called “1 Sentence Yelp Reviews.”

“They are of NO use to me!” Lau wrote in her own single-sentence review.

MICHELIN AND MCDONALD’S

Lau professes no desire to “trash” entrepreneurs, but also admits to “brutal honesty.”

Followers can see that in her accounts of a local Japanese restaurant (“The ramen was absolutely vile”) and a Greek eatery’s gyros (“I think I know what chicken tastes like and this was definitely not chicken!”).

That said, she is no snob. Acclaim for Michelin-starred bistros appears side-by-side with admiration for fast-food joints such as Del Taco and Subway.

“How I rate restaurants is, I rate them according to their peers,” Lau said. “So, fast-food restaurants would be rated against fast-food restaurants. Chain restaurants would be rated accordingly.”

“That’s one of the things people would write to me and get upset about,” she added. “I’m not rating McDonald’s the same as I rate a five-star restaurant, because it’s not in the same category. If I come across a McDonald’s that has exceptional service, I’m going to write about it.”

PASSING THE TORCH

Yelp’s success generating user reviews – similar to Amazon and Cnet – relies on an altruistic desire to help fellow foodies. Newcomers often are treated with suspicion, fingered as undercover business owners hyping their own companies or as know-nothing novices whose satisfaction with a meal means little.

That’s one reason Yelp created its “Elite Squad,” which honors productive reviewers who engage in the site’s chat forums and public events.

“Only a select few have been Elite six years running,” as Lau has been, said Quimpo.

Holly Wong, another Irvine Yelper, described Lau as “definitely one of the most trusted foodies in this area.”

If you trust her, and if you’re looking for a memorable feast, Lau suggests splurging at Melisse, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Santa Monica where she devoured the 10-course tasting menu.

“I haven’t had a meal that good in a long time,” she said.

On the lower end, Lau knows a can’t-miss spot for tacos and salsa: “El Campeon in San Juan Capistrano has never failed me.”

For a long time, Lau was Yelp’s most-accomplished writer, but she was recently eclipsed by a foodie in Mountain View, Calif., who has racked up 3,500 reviews.

“He’s even crazier than I am!” Lau said.

The passing of the torch was inevitable, Lau adds, because as much as she adores Yelp, it’s strictly volunteer work, and she’s devoting more and more time to developing a food blog (MadHungryWoman.Blogspot.com) and to freelancing restaurant reviews.

“I’m really hoping to get back into a real job,” she said. “A paying job.”